State primary education board tells officials to be cautious about marks

The state primary education board has asked its officials to exercise caution while factoring in the weightage of the board examination scores during the screening of the primary teaching job aspirants.

The request comes after it emerged last November that many of those who were appointed as primary school teachers were marked erroneously.

A teaching job aspirant who has cracked the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) can score a maximum of 10 based on performance in the higher secondary (plus II) examination.

The details of marks that the board had uploaded on November 28, revealed that some candidates got more than 10, forcing the board to initiate a probe to find out how the anomalies took place.

The board in late November uploaded the details of the marks of the 2014 TET candidates who later got appointed as teachers in 2016 and 2020 following a court order.

A board official said they have told the officials to be vigilant so such erroneous marking does not happen while drawing up a merit list for filling up 11,000-odd vacant posts in the government-aided primary schools.

“Instances of erroneous marking proved that there were lapses on our part. The board has been accused of manipulation. Cases have been filed against the appointments made earlier. We want fair recruitment,” said Gautam Paul, the board president. 

The board is conducting interviews of the candidates who had cracked TET held in 2015 and TET in 2021. The interviews started in March this year.

It recommends a candidate as a teacher based on the scores in TET, interview, Madhyamik, higher secondary and other parameters.

A board official said they were more careful about factoring in the board marks because of cases of erroneous marking Bobita Sarkar, who had secured the job of a teacher in a state-aided higher secondary school, lost her job.